Cheers & Jeers

CHEERS: To P.E.I. vet­eri­nar­i­ans Dr. David Con­don and Dr. Jeanne Lof­st­edt who re­ceived awards dur­ing the an­nual meet­ing of the Cana­dian Ve­teri­nary Med­i­cal As­so­ci­a­tion (CVMA) which wrapped up in Char­lot­te­town over the week­end. Con­don, who grew up on a small farm on P.E.I., re­ceived the Small An­i­mal Prac­ti­tioner Award for his com­pas­sion to­wards the an­i­mals in his care and his ded­i­ca­tion to the stu­dent vet­eri­nar­i­ans he men­tors and su­per­vises. Lof­st­edt, a na­tive of South Africa, was hon­oured with a Life Mem­ber­ship to the CVMA for her sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions to ve­teri­nary pro­fes­sion world­wide.

JEERS: To of­fi­cials with the RCMP Mu­si­cal Ride who in­sist that rid­ers wear wool uni­forms dur­ing their sum­mer per­for­mances. The heavy wool uni­forms must have made rid­ers hot and un­com­fort­able dur­ing week­end shows in Char­lot­te­town as tem­per­a­tures soared past the 25 C mark. Per­haps a cool cot­ton or some other fab­ric, which would look as for­mal, but give rid­ers some com­fort, is in or­der.

CHEERS: To the dozen Is­land for­est fire­fight­ers who are leav­ing to­day to help with the se­ri­ous wild­fire sit­u­a­tion in western Canada. The 12 Is­lan­ders will de­part for Bri­tish Columbia as part of a joint P.E.I./New­found­land and Labrador fire team. Of those, 11 will be ac­tively in­volved in fire sup­pres­sion while the re­main­ing mem­ber will serve as the Is­land’s li­ai­son rep­re­sen­ta­tive. P.E.I.’s For­est Weather In­dex is cur­rently high due to re­cent dry weather — all burn­ing per­mits are sus­pended un­til con­di­tions im­prove. The ma­jor­ity of the Is­land’s for­est fire­fight­ers are still in the prov­ince should they be needed.

CHEERS: The City of Char­lot­te­town, which re­cently in­stalled a plaque to rec­og­nize the for­mer home of Don Messer for his con­tri­bu­tion and pres­ence in the com­mu­nity. Don Messer and His Is­lan­ders be­came the most pop­u­lar tele­vi­sion show on the CBC next to Hockey Night In Canada. Messer was born in New Brunswick moved to Prince Ed­ward Is­land in 1939 to work at CFCY Ra­dio and formed the group, Don Messer and the Is­lan­ders. The home at 15 Bel­mont Street was orig­i­nally con­structed in 1950. Don Messer pur­chased this home in 1960 and lived there for sev­eral years. The Don Messer House is cur­rently owned by Melvin and Deb­bie Ram­say.

CHEERS: To the new Growler Sta­tion at the Gate­way P.E.I. Liquor re­tail store in Bor­den-Car­leton which is to help high­light Is­land beer pro­duc­ers. The Growler Sta­tion is a state-of-the art pour­ing sta­tion that fea­tures lo­cal brew­eries such as Moth Lane, P.E.I. Brew­ing Com­pany, Gahan House, Up­street Brew­ery and Barnone.